On Saturday 11th September Mother Claire Abraham was ordained deacon (along with 25 others) by the The Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford at Chelmsford Cathedral. Mthr Claire now takes up her post as Assistant Curate in our parish and she was able to act as deacon for the first time at our Sunday Mass on 12th September. In the photograph she appears here with the rest of the altar party after the Mass on Sunday. We wish her every blessing in her future ministry among us and in the wider church.
The hymnbooks are dusted off and we are ready to sing a hymn after Mass for the first time since March 2020.This is possible because Coronavirus Precautions have now been relaxed by the Government. This means that we are now able to sing in church. We will sing the Mass Setting and one hymn at the end of Mass.However, we would encourage people to continue to:1) Wear face masks in church (unless exempt) when moving about: arriving at church, leaving church, receiving Communion. Please also wear your mask when we sing. You may choose to wear your mask in your place at your discretion. 2) Consider using the Track and Trace code or add your details to our attendance list.3) Sanitise your hands on entry to church.4) Maintain social distancing as far as possible which means that we will continue to share the Peace at a distance.All our worship will continue to be available via Livestream on Facebook Live.
We are very pleased to announce that after discussion at our Church Council and bulding on past work our parish has now been accepted as a member of the Inclusive Church network. This means that we are committed to work towards being a church which celebrates and affirms every person and seeks to not discriminate on the grounds of disability, economic power, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, learning disability, mental health, neurodiversity, or sexuality.We are the first Church of England parish to join in Southend Deanery. This is just the beginning of the journey!Find out more information at https://www.inclusive-church.org/Sign-up to receive the monthly Newsletter here: https://www.inclusive-church.org/receive-our-newsletter/
We look forward to welcoming Claire Abraham to the parish in July as our new Assistant Curate. During the summer Claire will be settling into the town, getting to know us all, and undertaking some project work for the Diocese before her ordination. Claire will be ordained Deacon on Saturday 11 September after which she will be known as Mother Claire in the parish and will begin her full ministry with us which is part of her period of formation and training for her work as a priest in the Church of England. God willing, Mthr Claire’s ordination as a priest will take place in the summer of 2022.Originally from Ingatestone, Claire is currently in her final year of training at Cuddesdon Theological College, which is located on a beautiful remote hill in rural Oxfordshire. Prior to beginning ordination training, she worked for 22 years in the City of London/Canary Wharf in financial services; managing Global projects and programmes. This gave her wonderful opportunities for travel to Asia, the US and Europe and lead to a real love for India. In her spare time, when not in a global pandemic, Claire enjoys swimming, running (a recent couch to 5k graduate), reading, photography, countryside picnics and spending time with family and friends. She is also partial to resurrecting her project management background to organise community events as people working together to create community makes her heart sing!Claire is really looking forward to moving to Westcliff, learning from the Ministry Team and getting to know the new parish at this very exciting time. She hopes to get immersed in church and community life and meet as many people as possible. She is veryexcited by the recent renovation project at Saint Alban’s and the seeding project at Saint Mark’s. Claire has been married to Russ for 13 years. Russ is a self-employed web developer and a self-confessed geek, who enjoys photography and 3D printing. Russ is originally from the Wirral and is looking forward to exploring the Essex Coast.
